Many households have two or more adults who maintain separate checking or other types of financial accounts. In a large number of these households, those checking accounts are maintained at separate banks. In such a situation, the household maintains the flexibility of having an account for each person's use, but at a cost of having to maintain two minimum balances, and in some cases having to pay two sets of fees.
Some financial institutions currently offered “bundled” accounts. In some cases, these can be set up as a single joint account and a plurality of associated individual accounts. Various combinations of savings, checking, and even retirement and credit accounts can be offered in this way, so that amounts can be aggregated to meet minimum balance requirements, and for overdraft protection. However, account materials, such as bank statements and checkcards, may look substantially identical, leading to confusion as to which goes with which account.